Google has paved the way to Rupert Murdoch's plans to make users pay for online news content by allowing publishers to limit access to visitors that arrive at their subscription sites via its search engine.
Any publisher that opts in to Google's First Click Free program will now be able to restrict the number of times per day a user can access its articles for free when they click through to their websites from Google Search or Google News.
Up until now, users could have unlimited access to content on subscription sites provided they accessed articles from Google's search results pages.
The default limit will be set to five times a day, after which users are presented with a paywall, where they are prompted to subscribe if they want to read more.
However, publishers have the facility to set a higher limit or no limit at all on how many times users are allowed free entry via the Google door.
Many in the PR industry see the move as a concession by Google to News Corp and others in the paid content camp. And all the more so, as the announcement coincided with a media consultation in the US, in which Rupert Murdoch stepped up his campaign to charge for online content by calling on other news providers to follow suit.
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